Kia Marama: A Cognitive-Behavioural Program for Incarcerated Child Molesters

Abstract

A comprehensive cognitive-behavioural treatment program for incarcerated child molesters is described. This program operates within Kia Marama, a medium-security unit for sex offenders in the New Zealand prison system. It lasts 32 weeks and includes a four-week assessment process both before and after the 24 weeks of intensive treatment. Treatment covers a variety of issues including distorted cognitions, sexual issues, victim empathy, social skills, problem solving, life skills, stress management, and relapse-prevention training. In addition, when offenders are released they are supervised by professionals trained in relapse-prevention procedures. As this program began in late 1989, it is too early to properly estimate its success, but similar programs in North America have produced promising outcome data, and what tentative evidence we have to date suggests that the program is valuable.

Interventions to improve empathy awareness in sexual and violent offenders: Conceptual, empirical, and clinical issues

“…This supposition underpins the inclusion of empathy training as a fundamental component of treatment programs that seek to address the criminogenic needs of these offenders (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990;Hudson et al, 1995;Knopp, Freeman-Longo, & Stevenson, 1992)-the underlying rationale being that increased empathy will have an inhibitory effect upon the individual's motivation to offend as a response to the cognitive or affective dissonance experienced by the offender (e.g., Hildebran & Pithers, 1989) which, in turn, serves to reduce his or her risk of reoffending.…”

“…The particular focus of this review is on one area of program content which is widely believed to be critical to the effectiveness of most violent offender intervention programs, namely that of interventions to improve empathy. This is an important component of both violent and sexual offender treatments, and one which is inherent in social problem-solving and interpersonal skills training, as well as a central feature of interventions that are designed to increase awareness about the effects of offending on victims and, as a consequence, raise motivation to change (Hudson, Marshall, Ward, Johnston, & Jones, 1995;Marshall, , 2001Polaschek & Reynolds, 2001). First, we consider the construct of empathy and how it has been understood, before articulating a rationale for the inclusion of interventions to promote empathy in violent offenders.…”

The Suppression of Sexual Thoughts by Child Molesters: A Preliminary Investigation

“…The child molesters were categorized as situational or preferential offenders by the relevant therapist at the Kia Marama Sex Offender Treatment Program (Hudson, Marshall, Ward, Johnston, & Jones, 1995) and independently, on the basis of a file review, by the female research assistant who collected the data.3 Agreement on the classification of the offenders was high (a = .94) with disputes resolved by one of the authors (S.H. ), who is a consultant at the Kia Marama Program.…”

Sexual Offenders' Perceptions of Their Intimate Relationships

“…The child molester participants in this research were involved in the Kia Marama Sex Offender Treatment Programme (Hudson, Marshall, Ward, Johnston, & Jones, 1995), operating within a medium-security prison in New Zealand. The majority of these men participated prior to treatment.…”